The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-06-11

sealed to opera she becomes eXtlnct. l shook hands with her sadly. "Sit there," I said, "and wait with the rest of them" The national, indigenous branders have marked the fairest of our fiocks for their own. They have three working prima donnas, but they have branded four thousand.
 It is a monstrous reserve fund. Every vigorous girl with a glottis goes on praising God and pounding Gounod till she comes to Theodore Thomas.
 Then she waits for the opera.
 encounter them everywhere. Their trust is infinite, their faith sublime, their patience miraculous. Once let the seed of opera drop into their souls and they cannot be reasoned with or discomfited. "Thomas said it," is the grand, calm answer to all arguments. It does not make bit of difference how many he has said it to. The vicis- situdes of the national indigenous do not disturb them at all. A new dig nity and new eXclusiveness take pos session of them.
 know worthy lady who has been scaled three times. She was sol fad by Errani, vowelized by Gazzaniga, phrased up by Murio-Celli, and anointed first by Martzek. She waited five years for Leonora. Then she was resealed by Arditi for Azuceaa, for her voice had gone down little with her enthusiasm. She waited five more years without a murmur Then Thomas added his mark, and she is waiting still.
 If you have a girl with voice, let me beg of you not to have her sealed. Let her sing. Let her go to Belari and stand at the piano every day if she must. Let her go through her paces with Corbett, let her study Italian and eat maccaroni-but don't let the operatic maestro tell her she's a Dramd donnd, for from that moment all musical avenues are closed to her. She closed them herself.
 She will remind you of the girl that for so many seasons was the life of your party, who tlirted and sentiment talized, who went to all the balls, who took Jones' ice cream and Smiths car amcls and Johnson's flowers with equal noriete and undying gayiety; who let Barker woo her and Ferguson love her. and then went and engaged herself to Blimson. Of all the men in the world And from that mo- ment she was another woman; she re- fused Jones' Roman punch with aus terity; Smiths caramels were returned, and Johnson's flowers were given to the servants, and she froze Ferguson by drawing herself up and remarking "that he must be mistaken; she had no recollection of such folly"
 And all this time she had been wait ing for Blimson. Blimson, who is the worst roue ill town, who keeps q griSette in Paris, and confidently tells his friends at the Calumet club that he is going to marry the Widow Snaf- tleton.
 Not long ago reputable manager, who was giving comic opera success fully, wanted light, well trained soprano. He would have paid S75 a week if he could have got what he wanted. There were thousands of girls in the city who could have filled the bill with fresh voices and pretty faces, and who could not earn $l0 a week with their musical education. He got the usual list of names from the musi- cal agencies, and he called on a score of young ladies.
 Most of them were bright, intelli- gent girls, musically educated, and anxious to earn their living. But O. dear no they couldn't think of comic opera, you know. That was out oi the question.
 Why not?
 Why, the idea was absurd. They were going to sing in grand opera.
 They were sealed, and so they starved, but never wavered. Arditi or Thomas had said it.
 When one rationally considers the prospects of Italian opera at this mo- ment, on one side, and the battalions of eXpectant donnas on the other, be- lieving in myth and leaning on a chimera, one begins to feel that the mission of the old school was not only to raise up it's own destroyers, in the shape of stars, but to forever prevent any other system from raising up stars Thousands of charming girls believe in Italian opera to the extent of going hungry.
 But nobody else does. Such is tho mysterious effect of sealing. -Amet'- 1 ic0n MfSiciOD